By meshing a booming beat with pile-driving metal-guitar hooks and topping it off with the high-voltage vocals of Ann Wilson, Heart has earned a reputation over the years as the female (or Canadian) answer to Led Zeppelin. But the group's nifty formula for success has been negligently abandoned on Passionworks.

With this record, Heart seems more concerned with words and themes than music; each song obsesses on such standard issues as love, jealousy and desire. Nothing new, really, yet in mining around for big answers, the band has sacrificed its tunesmithing talents for a melodramatic, center-stage effect. "Heavy Heart" limps along as if it had a ball and chain attached to it, while Ann Wilson's emotional outpouring on "Blue Guitar" is wasted on the song's implausible lyrics. Not even a surfeit of terminology generally used by the State Department–e.g., "Allies," "Ambush" – can pump life into the moribund tableaux of the second side.

In short, Passionworks seems like the soundtrack to an off-Broadway show that closed after two nights. Almost totally lacking in hummable tunes and danceable rhythms, Passionworks does little more than showcase Ann Wilson's vocal pyrotechnics. Only the most insistent Heart fan will find much to cheer about here. (RS 407)

ERROL SOMAY